Glengyle whisky – Campbeltown

Glengyle distillery information

The Glengyle Distillery

The Glengyle distillery was founded by William Mitchell in the city (and whisky region) of Campbeltown in 1872. William and his brother John used to run the Springbank distillery just down the road together, but William ended up leaving following an argument over sheep. Glengyle finished completion in 1873, and ran the distillery as the sole proprietor for almost 5 decades. In 1919, the distillery was sold to West Highland Malt Distilleries Ltd (who also purchased Glen Scotia around the same time), but due to the struggling whisky business at the time, the distillery was sold in 1924, and finally closed in 1925, the remaining whisky being auctioned off.

The stills in the Glengyle distillery in Campbeltown

It remained closed until roughly the turn of the millennium, though several attempts were made to bring it back to life. Unfortunately, none of them ever led to anything concrete.. The Mitchell family, who still own Springbank to this day, voiced the desire to restart distillery the site of the original one (on the corner of Glebe Street and Glengyle Road, just down the road from Springbank). Reconstruction of the buildings finished in 2003, and after all the equipment (most of which was purchased second hand from the Ben Wyvis distillery) was fitted, the distillery reopened in March 2004.

Glengyle whisky

Whisky produced at Glengyle is sold under the name Kilkerran. The reason or this is that there’s already a blended whisky marketed under the name of Glengyle, and Kilkeran is the name that the settlement that Campbeltown was built upon once carried.

Seeing the distillery is still rather young, the first 10 Year Old is to be expected this year (2014). However, a number of yearly releases named “Work in progress” have been released since 2009:

Work in progress 1; released in 2009, matured in oak. Limited to 9,000 bottles worldwide.

Work in progress 2; released in 2010, limited to 18,000 bottles.

Work in progress 3; 2011 edition. 9,000 bottle release.

Work in progress 4; released in 2012. 9,000 bottles.

Work in progress 5 – Sherry matured; released in 2013. Limited to 9,000 bottles.

Work in progress 5 – Bourbon matured; released in 2013. Limited to 9,000 bottles

Work in progress 6 – Sherry matured; released in 2014. Limited to 9,000 bottles.

Work in progress 6 – Bourbon matured; released in 2014. Limited to 9,000 bottles.